Tania Saleh

Tania Saleh (born March 11, 1969) is a Lebanese singer-songwriter, present in the Arabic independent musical scene since 1990.
Early life
Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer, songwriter and visual artist. She is considered one of the founders of the Arabic independent alternative musical scene in Lebanon in the Arab world. Her voice is viewed as a mixture of traditional Arabic music with Western sounds. The themes of interest in her music include social and political turmoil in Lebanon (Saleh was six years old when the Lebanese civil war began).
Since her debut in 1990, she has experimented with various musical genres, which has resulted in a mix of Lebanese music flavored with folk, alternative rock, bossa nova, jazz, and most recently electronic music.
Alex Bessos encountered Saleh while searching for a lead vocalist for his band Minus Infinitee. Bessos expressed his interest in Saleh's voice and invited her to audition. Her first live performance was in 1986 at the West Hall of the American University of Beirut. Saleh's time with Minus Infinitee ended when Bessos emigrated to the United States.
Childhood
Her childhood and teenage years were affected tremendously by her parents' divorce, the civil war, and that her mother was raising her two daughters alone. Saleh had to start working at an early age to help support the family. At 17, she sang in various choirs, wrote jingles for radio commercials, and worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.
Education
Saleh enrolled in The Lebanese American University to study Fine Arts but chose music because of her interest. While in college, she joined many rock bands in search of her own style. Sometimes she had to cross the border between East and West Beirut to do her rehearsals with the musicians.
In 1990, after the civil war ended, she left for Paris to get her master's degree in "Arts Plastiques". She lived in a boat on the Seine river and fell in love with the beauty of the city.
Television and advertising
Between 1992 and 2014, she applied her passion for the arts in the world of television where, for two years, she experimented with image and sound, created illustrations, animations, video art, and wrote music jingles for Future Television. Later, she immersed herself in the world of advertising, a new creative outlet that opened a new horizon on audio-visual and conceptual experimentation.
Collaboration with Ziad Rahbany
She auditioned for an upcoming play by Ziad Rahbany, a famous Lebanese music composer/lyricist/pianist and playwright. She acted and sang live in two consecutive plays, "Bikhsous el Karameh Wil Shaab el Anid" and "Lawla Foushat el Amal" between 1993 and 1996, and contributed backing vocals recording on two cult albums (to which she also designed the album covers for), "Bema Enno" (with the late singer Joseph Sakr) and "Ila Assy" (a tribute to Assy Rahbany by Fairouz).
Career
First & Second album
In 1997, Saleh started to work on her solo album Tania Saleh, co-produced by sound engineer and music producer Philippe Tohmé. She worked in collaboration with music veteran Issam Hajali from the "Al Ard" band. The album was recorded at Notta Studio. Two singles were released, "Al Ozone" in 1997 and "Habibi" in 2002. Although not a mainstream success, Saleh received some interest on the nascent internet community in the Arab world.
The second studio album Wehde was released on April 13, 2011. The album was the best-selling album at the Virgin Megastore in Beirut.
Early Collaborations
Saleh wrote the lyrics to Natacha Atlas' song "Communicate", released on Lebanese band Blend's album "Act One". She was featured in "Next Music Station", a documentary by Fermin Muguruza about the modern independent Arab music scene.
She worked with music producer Miles Copeland in the PBS-produced documentary "Dissonance and Harmony/Arab Music Goes West"Copeland mentioned his collaboration with Saleh in his autobiography Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.
In 2007, Saleh wrote the lyrics to "Mreyte Ya Mreyte", the title song in Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's first feature film "Caramel", composed by Khaled Mouzannar.
She wrote the lyrics and coached the singers in Khaled Mouzannar's soundtrack for Nadine Labaki's second feature film "Where Do We Go Now?" released worldwide in September 2011. The film soundtrack won the "Best Music Award" at the Stockholm International Film Festival in November 2011.
Live albums
"Tania Saleh Live at DRM" was her first live album, released in 2012. It contains songs from Khaled Mouzannar's film soundtracks, and three previously unreleased songs.
A second live EP, "Tania Saleh Live in Barcelona", was released in 2020.
Lebanese Festivals
She opened the Byblos International Festival in 2002, and the Beirut Spring Festival in May 2013, and was chosen by The Baalbeck International Festival to perform at the temple of Bacchus in 2014. She also shared the stage as a guest with Lebanese trumpet player and composer Ibrahim Maalouf at the Byblos International Festival the same year.
Independence
She is still working independently, without a proper manager or booking agency, and has performed live at UNESCO and Institut du Monde Arabe (France), Dubai Expo 2020 (UAE), Cairo Opera House (Egypt), the Barbican Centre (UK), The Nobel Peace Centre, Freezone Festival, Woman's Voices Festival, The Oslo World Festival (Norway), The Roxy & Arlington Festival (USA), Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and Stallet (Sweden) and many others.
Her musical collaborations are very eclectic: Ziad Rahbany, Toufic Farroukh, Issam Hajali, Charbel Rouhana, Ibrahim Maalouf, Rayess Bek, Khaled Mouzannar, RZA, Nile Rodgers, Charlotte Caffey, Tarek El Nasser, Natasha Atlas, Bernd Kurtzke, Erik Hillestad, Anneli Drecker, Mathias Eick, Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Terry Evans, Hazem Shahine, Lisa Nordström, Bugge Wesseltoft, Kari Bremnes, Øyvind Kristiansen, Lina Nyberg & Chinese Man Records. She has also collaborated in musical workshops and residencies in Lebanon, France, Italy, USA, Norway, Sweden, Germany, UAE, Switzerland, Kuwait, and Egypt.
Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad from the label Kirkelig Kulturverksted has co-produced her last three albums, "A Few Images/Algumas Imagens" (2014), "Intersection" (2017) & "10 A.D." (2021).
Personal life
She married music producer/sound engineer Philippe Tohmé and had children in 1997 and 2003, which took her away from live performances for more than seven years. In the meantime, she started writing her second album, "Wehde", while still working in the advertising world. Her marriage to Tohmé ended in 2011. Her latest album "10 A.D." (written entirely by Saleh) is a journey into a woman's life, ten years after a divorce.
Discography
Studio albums
"Tania Saleh" - 2002
"Wehde" - 2011
"A Few Images (Algumas Imagens)" - 2014
"Intersection" - 2017
"10 A.D. (10 Years After Divorce)" - 2021
Live albums
"Tania Saleh Live at DRM" - 2012
"Tania Saleh Live in Barcelona" - 2019
Singles
"Al Ozone" (single) - 1997
"Slow Down" (single) - 2006
"Ers El Deek" (single) - 2007
"Ya Ghosna Naqa" (collaboration with Charbel Rouhana) - 1997
"Ya Baalback" (single) - 2015
"Show Me the Way" Remix (single) - 2020
"Ya Reit/I Wish" (single) - 2020
"In Rah Minnik Ya Ein/Out Of Sight" (single) - 2020
"From Me and You" (collaboration with Sabrine Jenhani & Ghassen Fendri) - 2021
"Sakakeen" (single) - (collaboration with Chinese Man Records) - 2022
Compilation albums
"Desert Roses 5" - 2007 U.S.A.
"Bagdad Heavy Metal" - 2007 U.S.A.
"Radio Beirut" - 2012 Germany
"Sunset in Marrakesh" - 2016 Turkey
"Sunset in Mykonos" - 2016 Turkey
"La Fleur Orientale" - 2016 Turkey
"Songs from a Stolen Spring" - 2014 Norway
"Putumayo-Acoustic Women" - 2019 U.S.A.
"Chinese Man Records-Matteo & Bro" - 2022 France
Collaborations
"Ila Assy" B.V. by Tania Saleh - music by Ziad Rahbany for Fairuz - 1996 Lebanon
"Bema Enno" B.V. by Tania Saleh - music by Ziad Rahbany for Joseph Sakr - 1997 Lebanon
"Salamat" B.V. by Tania Saleh - music by Charbel Rouhana - 1998 Lebanon
"Calipyge / Drab Zeen" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Toufic Farroukh - 2002 Lebanon/France
"Ya Ghosna Naqa / Vice Versa" old poem performed by Tania Saleh - music by Charbel Rouhana - 2003 Lebanon
"Ya Ghosna Naqa / Middle Eastern Oud" old poem performed by Tania Saleh - music by Charbel Rouhana - 2004 Lebanon/U.S.A.
"Act One - featuring Natasha Atlas" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Blend - 2004 Lebanon
"Caramel" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Khaled Mouzannar - 2005 Lebanon/France
"Dance Cycle / Lord Kanoun" performed by Tania Saleh - music by Iman Homsy - 2006 Lebanon
"Where Do We Go Now" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Khaled Mouzannar - 2011 Lebanon/France
"Not A Word Was Spoken" performed by Tania Saleh & Terry Evans - 2014 Norway/U.S.A.
"Rizkallah" lyrics & music & performed by Tania Saleh & Rayess Bek - 2014 Lebanon/France
"Fi Asfour" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by A. & G. Nehme - performed by Abeer Nehme - 2019
"El Hadouta Nota Nota" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Charbel Rouhana - 2022 Lebanon
"Sakakeen" lyrics by Tania Saleh - music by Matteo & Bro/Chinese Man Records - 2022 France
References
External links
listing
1969 births
20th-century Lebanese women singers
Living people
Women singer-songwriters
21st-century Lebanese women singers